Raphael drawings at the Ashmolean (ctd.)

May 30 2017

Picture: via Guardian

The new Raphael drawings show at the Ashmolean gets five stars from The Guardian:

This outstanding show makes you understand why his contemporaries adored Raphael. It was not just that he was very good-looking – as can be seen from a self-portrait at the start of the show – and a famous lover. There’s an innocent sweetness to these drawings, even a goodness.

Not only is he human, he’s vulnerable. We see Raphael here not as some shining cultural monument but a young artist learning on the job. In 1504 he is in Florence, watching a competition between his elders Michelangelo and Leonard da Vinci, copying them both. He happily learns from these two titans. Then he goes to Rome, to paint for popes and cardinals, to rival Michelangelo himself.

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